Putting Sweet Sounds Together

In 1891, the year William Butler Yeats turned 26, he published a collection of prose by Irish writers under the title "Representative Irish Tales." Yeats aimed to show the world how Irish literature had given a voice to the complex character of his troubled nation. To his mind, the best Irish writers of the 19th century made their mark by putting the experience of his countrymen into words. "They are Ireland talking to herself," Yeats wrote in the book's introduction.